LOCAL

'Awkward Family Photos': Exhibit at Peoria Riverfront museum a spinoff of popular website

Staff
Journal Star

‘Awkward Family Photos: The Exhibition,” opens Tuesday at the Peoria Riverfront Museum and will be up through Nov. 15.

The exhibition is a spin-off of the AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com website, which was launched in 2009. Website founder Mike Bender saw an awkward vacation photo hanging in his parents’ home and realized there were likely many other people with their own awkward family pictures. Bender and his childhood friend Doug Chernack set out to create a friendly place where people could share their own odd family moments. The site quickly became an Internet sensation, receiving millions of visitors and submissions from around the world.

Since then, Awkward Family Photos has released three books (including two New York Times bestsellers), received two Webby awards, and has been named one of the top 10 comedy websites by CNN.com and one of the top 25 blogs by Time.com.

In 2014 “Awkward Family Photos: The Exhibition” debuted to record-breaking crowds at the California Heritage Museum in Santa Monica.

The exhibit, with more than 200 images, was curated and designed by Bender and Chernack, who acknowledge that none of this would be possible without generous participation from the awkward families who so bravely sent in their photos.

“It is our hope that this exhibition will bring all our families a little closer together as we acknowledge those special times when we wished we were a lot farther apart,” Bender said.

As part of the exhibit, a giant gilded picture frame will be positioned so families can make their own awkward images. Visitors are invited to bring a camera and submit images to the museum’s Awkward Family Photo Facebook Contest. Visitors are also invited to submit photos shot elsewhere. Visit www.PeoriaRiverfrontMuseum.org or the museum’s Facebook page for details.

“Most of the photographs in this exhibition were taken as formal family portraits, whether shot by a family member or by a professional photographer,” said museum curator Kristan McKinsey. “As such they are actually snapshots of how the family chose to present itself for posterity.”

Frank T. McAndrew, internationally renowned professor of psychology at Knox College in Galesburg will lecture on “The Unavoidable Awkwardness of Family Life” at 2 p.m. Sept. 27. The lecture is free with regular admission to the museum.

Two photography workshops will be held in conjunction with the exhibit. How to Take a (Not) Awkward Family Photo will be from 1 to 4 p.m. Sept. 26, and Preserving Memories will be from 1 to 3 p.m. Oct. 24. Both workshops are $20 for members, and $25 for the public. Call 863-3034 to register.